Otherland II
by Taran Tatara
Summary: Continuation of the otherland series


I do not own Otherland, Tad Williams does and this is basically the rough first chapter of this fanfic. I will get much further much faster if people comment! Do it! Thanks.  
  
Chp 1  
  
  
  
Orlando rested lazily under the gargantuan Oak tree, eyes half closed, giving him the appearance of sleep. It was a typical day in Middle Earth, the sun was shining the birds were chirping and everything seemed to be normal. If told, one would be shocked upon hearing the truth.  
  
None of it was real.  
  
Oh, to Orlando it was as real as it could get, the feel of the breeze against your face, the oppressing heat, you could even smell the crushed grass beneath his lithe form. Otherland was incredible. Absolutely nothing was like it, the network was a world in itself, or else, literally, worlds in itself. Virtual reality had been taken to a new level.  
  
So the leaves, the clothes on the mans sim, the stones on the ground, they were nothing but code...However, to Orlando, they were much more. They were his home.  
  
His story, not really exclusively his since so many had been involved in what was surely the most significant chain of events in the history of the universe, was a long one. Looking at the boys strong, muscular body, one would never guess how it had started those four years long past, how the disease had caused him to waste away until he was nothing but a creature that resembled a wrinkled old man.  
  
Oh, Orlando was but eighteen, his sim was what caused him to look like a hardened warrior and not the teenager that he was. When younger, it had been best to roam the net, Middle Country being one of his favorite simworlds (totally different from Middle Earth) There he had been Thargor the Barbarian, not some sickly kid who stayed in bed all day hooked up to an IV unit. Ah, those were the days...  
  
No one could beat Thargor, no one, until that one day when the impossible happened.  
  
There was a flaw in the system. Instead of opening the door the evil witches tomb from which he was supposed to steal some old musty book with his pal/side kick Fredericks he had encountered the most amazing thing he had ever seen.  
  
A golden city.  
  
Now, this was not some ordinary run-of-the-mill image. This was the real thing! Nothing on the net was this high-tech. It had to be a picure from the real world, there was no other explanation! Except things were moving...things that did not exist in the real world, organisms of all shapes it sizes. It was...mind blowing!  
  
Something about it pulled at him, would'nt let him go. There was nothing Orlando could do but dive into a search to find this place, the golden city.  
  
Fredericks thought he was crazy but he, no no, she-it was always hard not to think of Fredericks of a girl since she had fooled Orlando for so long about what her true sex was-went along with him anyway.  
  
They had traveled to Treehouse, practically the most inaccessible place  
  
on the net, reserved only for the geniuses of virtual reality, the ultimate hackers. There they had gotten some answers and that was where they found it. Otherland.  
  
The two had gotten sucked into the network along with Tribe. From there it had been one adventure after another, fighting to get from one world to the next through gateways at the ends of the rivers.  
  
Little did Orlando know that him and Frericks had gotten themselves into the biggest scandal invented by the mind of man.  
  
The Grail Project.  
  
A man named Sellars had summoned Orlando and others by plating alluring hints all over the net, such as the one Orlando had found, desprate to find someone to save the children. The thousands of children who were being used by the system everyday...  
  
It had all been the Brotherhoods fault; an organization consisting of the most powerful men of the world, their main goal: Immortality. These greedy monsters would do anything to get it, even if it meant sacrificing the children, all those children...  
  
Eventually Orlando and his companions had encountered the mastermind of the whole project, Felix Jongluer, the most powerful man alive. Unfortunately enough for Orlando the fight had ended in his own death.  
  
Truthfully, Orlando did not remember anything about being dead, he, himself was something like a copy of his old persona, or else this sim was. The whole thing was pretty much confusing.  
  
The process which the Brotherhood had intended to use on themselves, to make them immortal, had been done to Orlando. It was sort of like saving all your memories somewhere and then transferring it to a virtual body. A sim. Code. He was nothing but code.  
  
The transition had not been his own choice, it had happened long after his death. The ironic thing was that he owed his being alive to The Other, the central core of the whole network which had played him as a last defense, its knight if you will, against the terrifying 'thing' Dread who was driving it to the brink of insanity.  
  
In the end, 'good' won out, but not without many casualties in the process. His companions, who had come to the network due to little brothers, sons and friends who were in comas or were killed because of the network still had to cope with their unconscious loved ones. These children, fortunately enough, slowly were able to recover, but still, it was hard on all and many died.  
  
So here he was. Orlando. Formerly known as Thargor, and now referred to by most as Ranger, Head Ranger to be exact, but who wanted to be called that anyway? Ranger was much better.  
  
Orlandos sighed heavily, his breath causing one of his golden strands of hair to fall out of place. He heaved himself up from the cushiony ground and began to walk slowly towards his home, just over the next hill.  
  
His mother and father would be there to see him soon, ready for their daily stroll through the woods. It was the only way for them to ever see him, to ever hug him or tell him how much they loved him, by meeting him in virtual reality.  
  
However, the boys mind turned away from thoughts of his family and he began to consider the strange happenings in the network of late, the stirrings deep within the system...eventually he knew that he would find out what it was and, now being the one who was responsible for all the occurrences in Otherland he was going to have to be the one to deal with it. 


End file.
